Jesus: An Historical Approximation

Wow!!! I can't say enough about the wonderful research and writing style of the author. This book was recommended by a theologian and I had never heard of this author. I am reading the book through, footnotes and all, because he presents such a deep portrait of Jesus in his times. That historical context of Jesus's times is one aspect that makes this book so valuable for readers. Surprisingly, it is jargon-free and the translation reads very well in English. I'm taking my time with it and highly recommend it if, you, like me, want to know Jesus better to enhance your spirituality.

Strongly recommended by pastor.

In the opening lines, Jose Pagola, asks the question “Why have I written this book?” He answers it in the same way I would: “This is not a new idea for me. I have always felt the need to spread the word of his person and His message. I am convinced that Jesus is the best we have in the Church and the best we can offer today to modern society……Jesus is the best that humanity has ever produced.” His study of the historical Jesus should not be confused with a study on the Christ of faith in whom we Christians believe.”The author points out that his study of the historical Jesus should not be confused with a study on the Christ of faith in whom we Christians believe. The reason for historical research is that if we believe in Jesus as the Son of God incarnate in our own history, how can we not use all the methods available to us to understand better his historical dimension and his concrete human life. Our faith itself demands it. Historical research can awaken in many people an attraction, interest and admiration for Jesus. This kind of research can help renew the faith of believers in Jesus Christ. This research brings us a flesh and blood Jesus that makes his humanity concrete and alive.The author has followed the criteria of historicity most widely accepted by scholars: the criterion of difficulty, as a measure of plausibility, of multiple testimony, of coherence. The important thing is to try to grasp the essential; the basic profile of Jesus; the most common characteristics of his activity, the content and thrust of his message. The author tries not to be tied to the personal reconstruction of even a highly respected author. Scholars in recent years have designed different models of Jesus, such as the social reformer, the itinerant cynic, the eschatological prophet, the wisdom teacher, and the pious charismatic. The author does not find his work of historical research at all incompatible with his faith in Jesus Christ. The first thirteen chapters bring the author nearer to ‘modern’ Jesus by tracing his principal features step by step: 1. Galilean Jew, 2.resident of Nazareth 3. Seeker of God, 4. Prophet of the reign of God, 5.poet of compassion, 6. Healer of life, 7. Defender of the least of these, 8.friend of women, 9.teacher of life, 10.creator of a renewal movement, 11. Faithful believer, 12.troublemaker and endangerer, 13.martyr of the reign of God. Chapter 14. does not cover everything we Christians confess about Jesus Christ, raised by the Father from among the dead. Chapter 15. briefly evokes the work that Christians must still begin, starting with their experience of the risen Christ, in order to deepen their understanding of Jesus’ identity.The purpose of this book is not to unravel the complex paths of the early development of Christological faith. It is to help readers discern some of the first steps taken in the Christian communities to deepen the mystery that lies within Jesus. The gospel writers were re-reading the story of Jesus in the light of the risen Christ, in order to deepen their understanding of his person, activity and message. There is also a summary of the efforts of the early Christians to find who Jesus is, capable of expressing his true identity. The author believes that knowledge/love of Jesus happens when we begin to trust God as he did when we believe in love as he did, when we come to suffering people as he did, when we defend life as he did, when we look at people as he did, when we confront life and death with hope as he did, when we pass on the contagion of the Good News as he did.The author presents the information in a very readable manner. It is beautifully crafted and for those who have a deep interest in understanding/knowing/loving Jesus Christ.

An engaging, well-researched and fascinating book. I am really enjoying it. My only critique would be that the introduction might benefit from a detailed explanation/defense of the historical reliability of the gospels. Pagola notes early on that he will use the gospels as his main (but not only) source of information regarding Jesus himself. Some people may question the authenticity/reliability of these works without having knowledge of the strong evidence in their favor.Interesting info on the subject for those who are interested:http://www.bethinking.org/is-the-bible-reliable/recent-perspectives-on-the-reliability-of-the-gospels

The book arrived ahead of time. It’s a used book and is in excellent condition. I’m pleased with this purchase in every way.

I've read a LOT of books about Jesus and the Christian faith. This is, by FAR, the BEST book if you want to better understand who Jesus was, what drove Him, the cultural context of His time, and how His life connects with how we live our lives today.Yes, it's a thick book, but every page is filled with deep thoughts and beautiful words.Regardless of your faith tradition (and even if you don't have one), this book will change how you think of Jesus and God's presence.

This is the most complete book on the life of Jesus that I have ever read. It includes all the well known theologians, historians, and authors of the studies done on Jesus. Why the author wrote this book is to show the readers what appears to be the reasons Jesus came on earth. In the author's words: "I want to help readers discern some of the first steps taken . . . to deepen the mystery that lies within Jesus." This will help people to realize the real Jesus and his real message of good news to the world and how to realize it in the way Jesus wished they would. Not easy reading but rewarding and a wonderful and freeing look at a major figure in the world we live in.

This book is arguably the best writing about Jesus, in the author's own terms, an historical approximation, by a true scripture scholar that I have read to date. The author takes the accepted historical data about Jesus and fills in the blanks from the New Testament sources to give a spiritually charged account of the life of Jesus. You can read the book from various angles, such as the biblical, social and economic environment in which Jesus lived and carried out his prophetic mission, or, you can garner spiritual nourishment as the author interprets Jesus words and action to describe Jesus' unspoken and unwritten experience with his heavenly Father, or, finally you can compare his insights to enrich New Testament writings officially accepted by the Church.

What a lively, exciting and intelligent book, equally inspirational and insightful. Jose Pagola gives us a flesh and blood Jesus, situated in a complex, rural and very Jewish Palestine, which was enduring a harsh Roman occupation - Governor Varus crucified 2,000 Jews only 6 km from Nazareth when Jesus was aged 3-5 (page 505) - and where there was scabrous social inequality and human suffering. Within that historical reality, Jesus brought a dramatic and radical message, which was intensely pragmatic and compassionate.As Pagola asserts, Jesus did not seek death as an atonement to restore the honour of God, but was killed simply because his radical commitment to God’s way inevitably led to his fateful clash with the Roman and Jewish powers.Pagola’s scholarly and up-to-date rigour is impressive, and all the more so for being low key, though his assertions are always backed up with clear references and footnotes.Major points as I see them:- Jesus’s key message: ‘The kingdom of God is already among you!’ (p105)- What mattered most to Jesus was how people lived their lives, not their religion (p109).- Jesus’s underlying goals were to heal, to dispel suffering, and to restore life (109).- He sought individual conversion in order to bring about a new model of compassionate social behaviour (116). The reign of compassion is God’s response to human suffering (175).- He was not transmitting new ideas, but putting people back in touch with their own experience, which could open them up to the reality of God (126). He used everyday, peasant language, images and stories.- ‘The parables cannot be translated into conceptual language without losing their original, transforming power’ (Ricoeur) as they are rooted in real, rural experience (127). Parables are earthy and historically particular stories which resonated with the people to whom Jesus was talking.- The reign of God is like mustard seed because it is already happening, quietly and secretly, we need only recognise it (129).- If Jesus is right in the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector praying, then nobody can be sure of anything – and we need to rely on mercy, not religion and the law (143).- The parable of the Good Samaritan is not a morality tale but is about looking at life from the point of view of the victim (145) and about the primacy of mercy, ie compassion above all else.- Jesus did not cure or do miracles in order to produce faith, but he called for faith in order to cure the afflicted – as acts of personal compassion (168).- Jesus was especially concerned with the poor, those at the margins of society [which was very polarised in his time], the dispossessed, victims of abuse and mistreatment (18).- Jesus was itinerant, scandalously outside the family and community. He was literally homeless, with no income, and was not concerned with social or political power except to challenge it (182). His authority came from how he acted and spoke.- He accepted sinners, without first requiring them to repent as traditionally understood, offering them his friendship just as they are, unrepentant sinners, trusting totally in God’s mercy and giving them a chance - as he brings them face to face with God’s love and tenderness without waiting for people to change. He starts the process by offering forgiveness. Everyone is offered the reign of God [P says only those who do not accept God’s mercy are excluded – but I would say that they exclude themselves; Jesus does not exclude them but always is ready to forgive](204-205).- J particularly loved the company of women – this is partly obscured by fact that gospels were written by men from the traditional male perspective, using generic/sexist language – and most commentators for last two millennia have been men. (209)- On divorce, J does not talk specifically about divorce as it exists today, but about men’s exclusive privilege of repudiating their wives (221).- The community or family which Jesus created with his followers was characterised by equality and loving service to each other (279).- For J, God is not a theory but an experience (291). J’s experience of God compels him to liberate people from their fears and the enslavements which keeps us from experiencing God. (292). J’s power and security come not from the Scriptures and traditions of Israel/religion, but from his experience of the Father (298). J’s trust in God produces an unconditional submission to God’s will – that is what he is always guided by. (299), and that is why prayer is so vital for him (eg at Gethsemane). Hence also the centrality of the Lord’s Prayer, which is practical and renunciatory, calling for God’s reign/will to become a ‘present reality’ (315).- I think that Pagola could have a broader understanding when he writes about ‘forgive us our debts as we forgive others’ (p 316). I feel that this is not just J saying that we are in debt to God and need his mercy and that we should not breed resentment in others by not forgiving them - but also that in entering the fully compassionate kingdom of God we lose our sense of self. Thus, there are no debts either way, they are naturally ‘forgiven’ (as between people deeply in love) and there is no separation between us and others/God: we are taken up into wholeness where debts and sin are healed.- Pagola’s work says little about the Trinity and Jesus as the Son (or incarnation) of God. This is a weakness, though understandably these central tenets of Christianity are not core to Pagola’s historical research (291).- God is goodness and mercy, which gives us a religion based on trust (310).- J was sentenced to death by the Romans, albeit at the instigation of the local temple aristocracy, who saw J as threatening their power (367)’, because:- (1) J was in conflict with the Pharisees over laws & traditions (Sabbath, purity, treating sinners as friends without demanding sacrifice etc) while J insisted on prioritising his direct experience of God (322); [P says reports in Mark and John that Pharisees sought J death are not historically plausible, 323];- (2) the main enmity towards Jesus was from the Sadducees, the priestly aristocracy of Jerusalem, because J's message and activity was a challenge to the temple as exclusive source of salvation (325); and more particularly because he chucked merchants etc out of Temple on his own authority, in direct challenge to their rules (355 & 360), which event precipitated his arrest;- (3) because the Roman powers were nervous (especially at Passover, 361) and defensive and could see that the implications of what J was saying is that Empire’s rule must be secondary to that of God (329 and also 365). Hence Pilate's political question, ‘Are you King of the Jews?’. J's popularity, unusual healing powers and the virulent opposition of the Jewish authorities to him were a threat to public order. Only the Roman governor, not the Sanhedrin or other local Jewish powers, had the authority to pronounce a death sentence. Thus there could not have been a legal trial by the Jews (as in 2 gospels), rather it was an informal enquiry to establish the terms on which the matter would be put to Pilate (359). Note that the cruelty of crucifixion was typically Roman and was designed to terrorise the population (370).- J did not seek martyrdom, was not resigned or submissive to the worldly authorities, and did not want to die (333). However, he was committed to being faithful to his trusted and loving Father, even if that did lead to death. He did not theologise about his death [unlike Paul] but saw it as the logical consequence of his unconditional commitment to God’s plan. Pagola is clear that Jesus did not understand his death as a sacrificial atonement offered to the Father (334).- J’s commitment to God is shown in his lack of man-made plans, the absence of any writings, and the lack of clear instructions to his followers (who had anyway fled when he was arrested) - except the broad message to love one another. J died without seeing his plans fulfilled. Even worse, he was abandoned by all and killed as a common criminal. His mission might appear to have been a total failure, even to accepting death (380).- Pagola is weak on the resurrection as being an intimate part of creation and the incarnation. He sees it from point of view of the witnesses, who fled in fear at J’s crucifixion. Later, they saw ‘the crucified [and risen] Jesus as the most realistic and extreme expression of God’s unconditional love for humanity’ (412).[I think Pagola fails to see the resurrection as part of the singular and eternal gift of God to the universe, of itself, in which the creation, the incarnation and the resurrection are all one action.]- The disciples return from the safety of Galilee, and gather together in Jerusalem: why? They give one answer in Gospels: ‘Jesus is alive. God has raised him.’ They also use words such as ‘awakening’ and ‘raising’, knowing that they are talking about something beyond human existence. Witnesses emphasise God’s action, at first, and then speak of Jesus himself rising from the dead. They speak of J being raised in sense of exalted, which is, introduced to God’s own life, which is to be pulled away from the power of death, suggesting the action of God on the dead Jesus. The post-death stories repeatedly stress that it is Jesus who takes the initiative, not the disciples. (388-89 and 400-401). The point, for Pagola, of Jesus’s resurrection is that it is the proof that what Jesus proclaimed about God’s tenderness and mercy is true (407). In the ‘crucified-risen Jesus, God is with us, thinking only about us, suffering like us, dying for us’ (409).- What does risen J tell the disciples? At the end of Mark it is succinctly expressed (16.15): ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation’.- The most meaningful confession of faith in risen J is that of Paul of Tarsus. Paul speaks from his own experience, of having been ‘reached’ by Jesus Christ, not in psychological terms but as a ‘gift’ of ‘grace’, an amazing reality: 'God has revealed his Son to me’. This causes a total reorientation in his life. He becomes a ‘new person’, and proclaims ‘it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me’ (399).- Pagola does not hesitate - quite frequently - to doubt the historical truth of parts of the Gospels, due usually to what he sees as the writer’s historical or subjective bias. For example, he dismisses the story of Jesus’s ascension into heaven, which is only told in Luke’s gospel. In Matthew and John (Mark’s story stops early, abruptly) Jesus says that he is ‘always with’ his disciples, and there is no ascension. Pagola says that ‘the ascension is a literary device imagined by Luke with a clear theological purpose’: as ‘a solemn culmination of Jesus’s time on earth; and ‘as the point of departure for the time of the Church and its evangelising mission’.This seems credible to me. The problem, of course, is that an ‘a la carte’ approach to the gospels risks robbing them of their authority. But it cannot be avoided. For Christians, the New Testament is not literally the word of God: Jesus himself is the word of God, the living Jesus, whom we must seek and be open to encounter in our lives. Therefore contradiction, obscurity, error and writer-bias in the Gospels and in Paul’s letters are inevitable. Though it is inspired by the life and gift of Jesus and his heavenly Father, the New Testament is a human work - not the direct, verbal revelation of God, which, for example, Muslims take the Koran to be.Though Pagola does not spell out this implication, it is the refreshing backdrop to everything he writes. The ‘truth’ is provisional, always needing to be rediscovered in the light of present reality, which is the living grace of Christ Jesus.- A weakness of Pagola’s resolutely ‘Jesus as prophet for the poor’ approach is that this socially-committed point of view risks putting Jesus on one side of a political argument. Yes, J is with outcastes and the poor, and is against the power of the powerful. But Jesus surely does not refuse heaven to the powerful, if they are open to it. He does not scapegoat the scapegoaters. Jesus sees the true person in each human being - with no discrimination as to rich or poor, bad or good, sinner or law-abider. He is full of compassion for each person as they are, even the rich and powerful, even the evil and cruel. He accepts each person unconditionally - whether a leper, an arrogant scribe, a loving woman, a young rich man, an adulterous woman, a curious Samaritan woman, a collaborating tax collector, a street urchin or an officer of the occupying army. Jesus certainly challenges the politically and socially powerful, but he does not ignore them, he does not disdain them. He answers tricky questions from various Pharisees, and he answers those who are scandalised by his association with tax collectors and prostitutes. In answering them, he is caring for them, giving them what they most need at that point.- In my view, J is not on anyone's 'side' (in the sense of being closed to other people), except inasmuch as he is on everyone’s side, in that every living thing is made in the image of God, in their true inner being. That is his point. He is one with God, and it is up to us to accept his offer to recognise this and join him. Hence, his sense of urgency: 'the Kingdom of God is near'. This is not ultimate judgement and death, but a literal sense that the absolutely loving and merciful presence of God is right in front of us, is inside us, here and now, and is the centre of everything - if only we will have eyes to see. If only we can forget our 'self' and be in the Spirit. There will be judgement, there already is judgement, because we judge ourselves in how we live, and this comes from how we are out of tune with the reality of the loving God: to be unloving is to be out of kilter with God, with things as they really are, to be estranged from ourselves, to be separate from the one God.- There is an excellent brief section on the different perspectives of the 4 gospel writers (418-429): Mark’s focus is the actions of Jesus, the Son of God who is crucified but raised by God, bringing salvation in contrast to the false power of the Roman emperor; Matthew’s ‘purpose is to describe the messianic identity of Jesus in terms that his Jewish readers can understand’, though he also makes clear that Jesus is for all nations and emphasises Jesus’s commandment to love one another; Luke sees Jesus as the Saviour who spreads joy, he is mercy enfleshed, compassionate particularly to women; while for John, Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, the Father speaking to us in Jesus’s words, the Revealer but also the Saviour ‘who at once fulfils and surpasses the human hope of salvation, the cosmic way, truth, and life’.- Pagola adds a number of short and useful appendices. This includes what he regards as historical facts about Jesus; his general criteria of interpretation; wise words on the different literary sources and their importance to current research on Jesus (including the apocryphal, gnostic gospels and the Qumran manuscripts); and he explains his criteria of historicity (difficulty; discontinuity; multiple witnesses; consistency; and compatibility with the crucifixion).- A final quibble regarding this magnificent and inspiring book is that it is too long and can be repetitive. For example, the section (281-284) ‘In service of God’s plan’ repeats things already said earlier.

L'analyse fait presque revivre l'homme Jésus de Nazareth et le met à la hauteur de notre entendement et nos sensibilités. Fortement conseillé.

OK, I'm biaised, but there are books on this subject - and books. This is one of the best. The punctuation is a little strange for the English reader but the content is riveting to the extent you fail to notice it after a very short while. It is easy to read because the reader can dip in and out of it and every chapter is appealing and the unusual physical properties of the paper and binding make it very attractive to handle.I come back to read this book and others of his and today I decided to have a look at the reviews. There seem to be many reviews which include conjectures about the sex life of Jesus. Many years ago I did think of writing about the life of Jesus when I did wonder about his friendship with Mary Magdalen. My husband pointed out that I could offend many people and I got to thinking how: it dawned on me that if I had written a love story about Mary and Jesus this could only be a guess at the best of times since there is nothing much that the truth of it can be taken from any of the Gospels...even the apocryphal ones. Also, thinking seriously it dawned on me that Jesus came for all of us and that if he had settled for one person in particular it would somehow diminish the concept of his love for each one of us. Furthermore, imagine how many seeds of dissension might have been sown by a myriad of his earthly descendents? My proposed book therefore became a no-no!

This is an absorbing read. It lends itself to meditative refelction on each few pages as the author takes the reader through the various phases of the life and work of Jesus. There is a wealth of historical detail presented in a reader friendly manner. The author does not intrude, but allows the reader to deduce her/his own conclusions. For example, he points out that Jesus did not quote the Torah, but rather encouraged his listeners to be like the father, compassionate. He does not try to draw a lesson from this, but leaves us to respond accroding to our understanding. There are footnotes aplenty for the scholar to peruse, but the ordinary reader doens not need to try to absorb the information imparted there. It is a most enjoyable read, ideal for the Lenten and Holy Week season which has just passed.

I had been recommended it by a friend and have discovered that it is as good as he said it was. A refreshingly honest view of Jesus, stripped of the accretion of pious sentiment. All that is really important about Jesus is there, and that which is not is given very short attention. For any serious believer or student of the Bible, especially the New Testament, this is a helpful step forward.